COML 4639

Ordering Knowledge: Pliny's Encyclopedia and its Successors

Course Description

Course information provided by the 2015-2016 Catalog.

This course explores the organization of cultural and scientific knowledge in the form of so-called "encyclopedias", beginning with Pliny the Elder's Natural History and tracing its development in later western culture, including Diderot's Encyclopédie. In particular, we will focus on the combination of natural science and art history that informs Pliny's text, and the notions of enkyklios paedia (or "general education") with which it has been problematically associated. The course will include sessions in the library's Special Collections, focusing on Cornell's prized collection of early printed editions of the Natural History. All works will be taught in translation; students may acquire an additional credit by attending sessions in which we will read Pliny in the original Latin.

Distribution Category (HA-AS)

When Offered Fall.

Breadth Requirement (HB)

View Enrollment Information